Friday, 27 November 2015

We had a few reports of a dead whale stranded out on Omey Island which apparently turned up on Wednesday. I only managed to get out this morning. The weather was really rough with gale force winds and near constant rain. The weekend is supposed to be actually worse which is a pity as I wouldn't mind seeing the showing American Bittern that's down in Cork at the moment.
The whale turned out to be a Minke Whale. As usual there were no obvious outwardly signs which would suggest why or how it died. It was in quite good condition. It looks like a fully grown adult male. Minkes are one of the smallest of the baleen whales and the only baleen whale that is regularly seen in inshore waters off county Galway. I've only seen one or two alive in the county. They have a distinctive white band on the pectoral fins and a prominent ridge running along the top of the head. This is the first stranded Minke Whale that I've seen here.

Monday, 23 November 2015

I was in Galway today and had a look at Nimmo's Pier for the first time this winter. I saw this first-winter Iceland Gull on the slipway with a fish hook impaled in the inside of the upper mandible with about a foot of fishing line still tied on. The bird was in obvious discomfort and it's likely that it will probably starve to death as a result of not being able to properly feed. It's when you see small stuff like this you realise what an utter virus the human race is to this planet. The bird was still well capable of flying so trying to catch it would prove nigh on impossible. Ringers have tried using clap nets to trap gulls for ringing here before but they've proved useless as the gulls are incredibly wary of anything out of the ordinary even a spot like this where they are habituated to people.
I also had a Norwegian colour ringed Black-headed Gull. It was ringed in Oslo on 10th April 2011. It has visited Nimmo's Pier on several occasions and has also returned to its original ringing site. Details below. One second-winter Ring-billed Gull also but no sign of any of the usual returning adults. The beach and rocks were devoid of any gulls or terns.

Sunday, 15 November 2015

I've had a few colour ringed Black-tailed Godwits out at Rahasane Turlough in recent weeks. I had around a dozen marked birds but unfortunately about half were asleep with one leg raised making it impossible to read the full set. Most of course had been ringed in Iceland as one would expect and I've added the life histories below. It's interesting to note that some of the individuals have not been seen in several years up until I saw them e.g. one bird last seen in 2008. This is many down to the fact that few are read here. Conditions usually aren't suitable for ring reading at Rahasane due to birds feeding either long grass or in belly deep water. Many thanks to James Wilson, Jenny Gill, Nuno Cidraes Vieira, Tómas Gunnarsson, etc. for help in tracking down these birds.

Sunday, 8 November 2015

We were out on Inishark and the surrounding islands again during the week to carry out another count of Grey Seal pups. They seem to be having a good year. There were a couple of casualties recently though with one adult female and ten dead pups encountered. Many of these were in dangerous coves. We had a very large swell last week which combined with high tides and bad weather meant that some were trapped in these coves with no where to escape from the battering waves. Some of the younger pups may have drowned or become hypothermic as they are unable to survive for long in the water when young. The adult female looked like she was absolutely pummelled as she may have been trying to protect here pup.

As we landed on Inishark we saw two bull Grey Seals doing battle right by the slipway. They can be fairly ferocious when they go at each other. If you're of a squeamish nature then the photos below may not be for you! Both had numerous fresh battle wounds and blood was literally flying. They were obviously fighting for the right to mate with the females in the area. One of the males seemed to have the upper hand for most of the time. It was only on editing the photos for this post that I realised that this dominant male had a cataract or was possibly even blind in the right eye. I remembered the male with a similar damaged eye which we saw in the exact same spot back in November 2013 which had the GPS Phone Tag attached to his head. It had been caught in Brittany, France twice and on both occasions has made it's way up to Inishark for the autumn. http://dermotbreen.blogspot.ie/2013/12/inishshark-27th-november-2013.html
When I compared my photos from November 2015 and November 2013. I was able to find at least three unique marks on the head which confirmed that it was actually the same male! He has earned himself quite a few more battle scars during the last two seasons. The tag is glued onto fur but is shed when the male moults each year. It must surely have made the same journey many times now although he obviously hasn't been tagged this year.

While I mention seals there was an interesting piece in the news about a week back which was reporting on research addressing the theory that seals compete with Irish commercial fish stocks.http://afloat.ie/item/30438-seals-not-competing-with-commercial-fishing-stocks-says-new-research
The study was carried out by the Queens University Belfast, University College Cork and Marine Institute. They found that "seals are not threatening commercial fishing stocks in Irish waters, with the possible exception of wild Atlantic salmon". While they can cause damage to static fishing gear they have no significant negative effects on commercially fished species along the south and west coast of Ireland. As mentioned by the study the huge majority of Salmon sold in Ireland is now farmed which if run properly should be immune from the attention of seals. When they do cause damage to fish in nets it's usually down to just a few individuals who have learned about an easy source of food. Seals along with Cormorants have long been demonised throughout the world by fisher folk and I'm sure this scientific study will do nothing to change many minds in the industry here. I was at a talk a few years ago given by a fisheries officer who was suggesting a Cormorant cull while using a picture of Shag as part of the presentation - need I say more. When had a locally elected county councillor calling for cull and returning to "keeping the place clean" (paraphrasing) of seals not that long ago.http://afloat.ie/marine-environment/marine-wildlife/item/19000-seal-cull-needed-on-west-coast-says-fg-councillor
Culling wildlife now seems to be the standard go to option for many in recent years even if the slightest issue arises e.g. Pine Martens, Badgers, "seagulls", Barnacle Geese, birds of prey, etc. God forbid we would actually look at the facts first, no, just shoot first and as questions later.

Very loose skin on the neck - adaption for fighting among males?

2013 and 2015 pics. Large gash to the left hand side of the top of the neck. Wound seems to have been reopened.

2013 and 2015 pics. Very distinctive scarring on bridge of nose. Starting from top working down - diagonal mark over three vertical marks with a two horizontal marks.

2013 and 2015 pics. Distinctive pockmarked scar behind left eye, almost the same shape as county Clare!

Female Grey Seal

Young Grey Seal playing with its mother. Both were nearly 100 metres up from the shoreline.

Thursday, 5 November 2015

A selection of different species from the last fortnight or so. I had two Black Redstarts on the roofs of the Trident Ballyconneely Holiday Homes on Monday. These are actually the first "Black Reds" I've seen at Slyne Head. The last record for Slyne comes from 1893! The species has always been relatively scarce compared to the south of Ireland and even adjacent county Clare. While like many scarce species, records have increased during the last decade or so, they are still years where none are recorded at all.

I was delighted to see a flock of 23 Greenland White-fronted Geese flying into Mannin Bay near Ballyconneely on 27th October. They were flying east just offshore presumably after following the coastline south. When I last saw them they were heading into Roundstone Bog but I doubt they stopped. Sad to say that these were the very first "GWFs" I've seen in my ranger area since I started in 2008. Historically there were several different flocks in what is my area (west of Maam Cross). Roundstone Bog held one of the last remaining flocks up until around the late 1990's. All gone now. There is (was?) only one flock numbering in the single figures left in Connemara which I've written about previously http://dermotbreen.blogspot.ie/2014/03/the-very-last-greenland-white-fronted.html I suspect this flock may have been heading onto Rahasane Turlough. I had a flock of 15 birds there on 24th October and this had increased to exactly 50 birds on 1st November. Nice to see around three pairs with juveniles although there were 60 there last winter. The results from 2014/2015 International Census of Greenland White-fronted Geese was only just recently published. The long-term future of Greenland race of White-fronted Geese doesn't appear all that great in contrast to most geese species.The full report can be seen at the link below and I've pasted the summary here.

The global population of Greenland White-fronted Geese in spring 2015 comprised 18,854 individuals, a very sharp 9.6% reduction on 20,797 in the previous spring. This is the first time the population has fallen below 20,000 individuals since 1985. Half of the decline could be accounted for by the loss of 1000 geese on Islay between years, and another 500 from elsewhere in Britain; 10,266 were counted in Ireland, 8,588 were counted in Britain. Reproductive success was very low at only 6.1% in Ireland, but 12.9% in Britain.

Tuesday, 3 November 2015

I had two individuals amongst eight Chiffchaffs down at Slyne Head yesterday that are most likely Siberian Chiffchaffs. Both were a lovely pallid milk-tea colour on the upperparts, very light buff underparts (no yellow streaking) with olive tones confined to just the wing and tail feathers. The only obvious yellow on the plumage was at the bend of the wing and underwing. Both also showed warm buff/rusty tones to the sides of the flanks and around the cheeks. Bird no. 1 differed really only in it's supercillium compared to bird no. 2. To my eyes bird no.1 showed slightly more yellow tones, another person might describe this as buff, I'm not sure. The birds appearances could change significantly depending on light. The first bird was photographed in very overcast light conditions inside a large Sycamore tree while the second was photographed in similar conditions but also sitting out in the open in evening light.

So while both looked like the part here's the bite. Bird no. 1 was heard calling several times and gave the typical hweet call of a nominate collybita Chiffchaff. There were three other collybita Chiffchaffs present in the same garden. It was never heard to give the mournful peep call of tristis even when playback was used. Bird no. 2 was never heard giving any call even with playback of both races. I probably spent the guts of two hours staying with both birds waiting for the expected calls which never came. So there you go, what to do??